Prior of Lewes, and was his lodging when he came to town, was then a common hostelry for travellers, and had to sign, "The Walnut Tree."
A little further eastward, in Crown Court, Glean Alley, when the Greenwich Railway was heing erected, there were discovered some extensive groined brick vaults, of handsome construction and ancient date: they evidently formed the basement or substructure of some important mansion; and it is not improbable that the Duke of Burgundy, or his ambassador, had his residence here, about the reign of King Edward IV.; as on or about this spot was a place called "The Burgundy" or "Petty Burgundy."
Adjoining to St. Olave's Church on the east side, where Chamberlain's Wharf now stands, was the house of the Abbots of St. Augustine's at Canterbury.
It was purchased by the abbot and convent in 1215, of Reginald de Cornhill, sheriff of Kent, for six-score marks, towards raising the sum of 3,000 marks, which he was compelled to pay to King John for his ransom, after having been taken prisoner at Rochester Castle. After the dissolution of the monasteries, it became the property, and perhaps the residence, of Sir Anthony St. Leger, Knight of the Garter, Deputy in Ireland to King Henry VIII., and ancestor of the Viscounts Doncraile. He was actively employed in the dissolution of the monasteries, and obtained a grant of the inn in the parish of St. Olave belonging to the Abbot of St. Augustine's. He gave to St. Olave's Church a vestment of cloth of gold, wrought with red velvet, with the garter and his arms upon the back, with all the apparel thereunto belonging.[1]
- ↑ "Gentleman's Mag." May 1837. The arms of Sir Anthony St. Leger were azure, fretty argent, a chief, or.
